Intellectual Property & Technology

Overview

Our Firm provides clients with access to intellectual property (“IP”) attorneys in the United States and Asia who are experienced in litigation, prosecution, licensing and technology transfer, and IP counseling.

Our Firm’s attorneys devote their practice to the protection and enforcement of all forms of intellectual property rights under patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition and trade secret laws.

Our attorneys appreciate the new frontiers in which our clients conduct business, their business industries ranging from biotechnology to electrical and computer engineering.

Our IP practice is national in scope and services middle-market companies and major research and educational institutions, as well as entrepreneurial businesses and individuals.

Copyright

Copyright is key to the development of our clients' businesses in a wide range of areas including publishing, information technology, online services and web businesses.

Developing an effective strategy to protect our clients’ copyrights against exploitation in the ever-developing and ever-changing IP environment is essential.

Clients often do not realize that even if a business asset is already entitled to protection under patent or trademark law, it may also be entitled to protection under copyright law.

This is important to note because after patent and trademark protections are no longer available, copyright protection may still be.

Computer software, fashion designs, jewelry designs, literary works, furniture designs, videos and character drawings are just a few of the creations that copyright law may protect.

Counseling on the best procedures and methods for developing, protecting and licensing software including open source software;

Identifying potential copyright candidates in IP portfolios;

Preparing and prosecuting copyrights in the United States;

Counseling on copyright enforcement;

Investigating copyright issues, including ownership;

Counseling on maximizing the value of copyrights; and

Providing due diligence support for corporate acquisitions involving copyrights.

E-Commerce And Internet Law

E-Commerce Internet marketing has become a closely regulated industry.

Nowadays every business needs an experienced attorney to guide them through this developing legal field, and individuals need to know their rights when dealing with companies in web-related transactions.

Whether we are procuring patent protection on a new Internet business model, handling a domain name dispute, counseling a client on trademark and copyright issues surrounding its website content, or conducting a due diligence investigation of the IP assets of a technology company about to be brought public, our Firm provides quality, speedy and accessible legal services that the IP industry demands.

We know that clients on different points of this spectrum often have different needs for their IP attorneys, and we are equally adept at fulfilling our clients’ needs. Our practice in this area includes:

Trademarks

Our team of dedicated attorneys acts for a broad range of brand owners.

We are experienced with different national and supra national trademark systems, and we are able to navigate and exploit the subtle differences between them to achieve our clients' various objectives.

On the litigation side, our Firm has the capacity to handle deals involving court action, anti-counterfeiting, settlement and co-existence.

On the transactional side, we are experienced in the different ways in which brands may be commercialized, through licensing, merchandising, joint ventures and financing, both on a national and international scale.

In counseling clients prior to the adoption of new trademarks, we offer an unrivaled variety of screening and clearance search options.

In addition to the widely available private trademark databases, our geographic proximity to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) allows ready access to the official trademark search systems used by the government attorneys who examine applications for the registration of trademarks.

Preparing and prosecuting trademark applications in the United States and abroad;

Performing inter-party proceedings;

Conducting opposition and cancellation proceedings;

Reviewing and counseling on trademark enforcement and strategies;

Mediating trademarks and unfair competition disputes;

Enforcing trademarks in foreign countries;

Counseling on maximizing the value of trademarks;

Providing trademark clearance opinions;

Advising on appropriate trademark usage for advertising, including packaging; and

Negotiating and preparing trademark licensing and assignments.

Unfair Trades

Unfair trade practices encompass a broad array of torts, all of which involve economic injury brought on by deceptive or wrongful conduct. The legal theories that can be asserted include claims such as trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, false advertising, palming-off, dilution and disparagement, and may be governed by common law as well as federal and state statutes and regulations. Unfair trade practices can arise in any field of technology and frequently appear in connection with claims of patent, trademark and copyright infringement.

Our Firm’s attorney is experienced in the field of unfair competition, enabling us to provide our clients with outstanding advice. We advise U.S. and Chinese clients, whether they be defendants or claimants, in cases dealing with unfair competition. Our clients operate in various economic fields, including, among others, the pharmaceutical industry, IP services, medical devices, distribution, perfumes and the cosmetic industry.

Because of this range of experience, companies of all sizes—from those that are household names to those that are start-ups in emerging markets—rely on our Firm to protect their most valuable assets. Our attorneys counsel clients to help them avoid potential problems through guidance on how to implement appropriate safeguards and how to diligently monitor their competitors' activities. If a dispute does arise, clients count on us to enforce their rights, whether it involves litigating in court, arguing before the U.S. International Trade Commission or proceeding in a domain name dispute under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) arbitration procedures.